1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a backlight device, an image display device including the backlight device, and a method of assembling a backlight device, and more particularly, to a backlight device which irradiates light from a rear surface of a display panel by introducing light through a side surface (end surface) of a light guide plate by using a plurality of point light sources, such as light emitting diodes (LEDs), an image display device, and a method of assembling a backlight device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, accompanied by an increase in the screen size of an image display device (for example, a display device or a television set) which displays an image by using a display module, such as a liquid crystal panel, thinning or weight lightening is required to decrease a thickness of a body of the image display device as much as possible. For thinning or weight lightening of the body of the image display device, a display module or the inner part of a case body occupying most of volume or weight inside the body of the image display device may be thinned or weight-lightened. Also, a back light device is required when a liquid crystal panel is used in the display module, and thus in order to thin the display module, it is important to thin the backlight device.
In order to thin the backlight device, various backlight systems using an edge light method of disposing a LED light source on an end surface of a light guide plate are being suggested. As such, by disposing the LED light source on the end surface of the light guide plate, the backlight device can be thinned.
A backlight system of such an edge light method using an LED as a light source is disclosed, for example, in Patent Document 1.    (Patent Document 1) Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2004-79488 (FIGS. 4 through 6)